The present invention is directed to an apparatus and process providing distribution of text, audio, video or other content on a medium such as an optical disk storage medium which includes both mastered regions and recordable regions (writeable regions) and in particular to a small-format, lightweight apparatus and method of use, for distributing content on disks to facilitate either or both of buying and selling (with appropriate royalty payments for proprietary intellectual property) and/or annotation correction or revision of the content, e.g., using the writeable area.
A number of benefits can be achieved using a medium which can readily and economically provide both mastered content and the ability to write or record information. As used herein, xe2x80x9cmasteredxe2x80x9d content means content provided on the medium before it reaches the user. A common example is music CD""s in which the music is mastered prior to distribution to users. Information written onto the same medium containing mastered content can be useful, e.g., in any of a number of systems for accounting for or collecting usage fees, royalties or similar charges for use of proprietary intellectual property in such content, including systems involving use of the Internet (or other communications systems), thus effectively providing a device which is not only an electronic book, music or multimedia player or similar content-output device, but also effectively an Internet appliance (i.e., an apparatus which can operate, at least partially, in connection with information obtained using the Internet or similar communication system).
Other potential benefits from a practical and economic mastered/writeable medium or media player include the ability to annotate, supplement, update, correct or otherwise supplement or modify the mastered data with new or additional data. Accordingly, it would be useful to provide a system, apparatus and/or process which is practical and economical for both mastering of content and writing of content or other data on the same medium.
Many previous attempts to provide mastered and writeable portions on the same medium have encountered or resulted in various problems. Some data storage media are pre-recorded only in a serial fashion, such that it is not possible or feasible to produce the entire content at one time. A typical example is the pre-recording of audio tapes which, even if recorded at high speed and/or simultaneously recording multiple tracks, were generally recorded serially, i.e., beginning at one physical end of the tape and recorded along the length of the tape to the other end. In general, the amount of time required for such serial pre-recording can render the process substantially economically unattractive. Accordingly, it would be useful to provide a system, apparatus and method involving both mastered and writeable portions wherein the mastered content is provided in the medium substantially all at once.
Many systems that involve writeable media are unsuitable for long-term or secure storage, either because the written information is re-writeable (e.g., typical CD-RW media) or because the information tends to degrade in a relatively short time period (or both). Accordingly it would be useful to provide a system, apparatus and method involving both mastered and writeable portions in which, if desired, the writeable portions can be provided in a form which is not re-writeable or erasable, and/or which is relatively long-lived, so as to provide archival information storage, e.g., storage for about ten years or more substantially without information loss.
Although there are techniques for mastering content all at once (such as stamping or pressing of vinyl audio recordings or injection molding of compact disks (CDs) and the like), the techniques and materials used in these processes are generally different from those used for providing writeable areas. Although it is possible to provide, e.g., a dye-based or other writeable optical disk with some data thereon pre-recorded, typically the pre-recorded data on a dye-based CD must be serially recorded. Accordingly, previous approaches, in order to provide both parallel-written, mastered content and writeable areas were required to have different regions for these two different types of areas and different materials and techniques, such as an optical disk having an inner radial area with molded mastered content and an outer radial area with writeable dye media. Media with two different regions of material have proved to be expensive and unreliable to produce. Moreover, the techniques, machinery and materials for producing such a two-medium storage device would typically predetermine the relative amount of mastered, versus writeable, area and thus would be relatively inflexible such that changing the relative proportion of mastered and writeable area would require substantial retooling or redesign of fabrication processes. Accordingly it would be useful to provide a system, apparatus and method achieving parallel-written mastered material and writeable regions on a single-medium substrate, preferably such that the materials and techniques used for forming the two areas are substantially the same, with the areas differing substantially only as to whether the region has content molded (or otherwise mastered) therein.
Furthermore, many systems require different sets or ranges of optical parameters for reading mastered data versus reading later-written data and/or for reading mastered data versus writing data. In some cases this means that two or more sets of optical apparatus (such as two different wavelengths of laser, powers of laser, optical trains or optical arms or the like) must be provided in a single playback and/or read/write drive. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide an apparatus, system and method using a medium which has both parallel-written mastered data and writeable areas, but which can be used (for reproduction and/or writing) using a single optical train or optical arm, a single and/or a single wavelength of light.
In many situations, a person who annotates text (or other content) cannot effectively position or store the annotations so that they appear adjacent to, or otherwise related to, the text to which they refer. In some situations, annotations are not readily found or accessible. Accordingly, it would be useful to provide a system, apparatus and method which provides for annotations of mastered content in such a fashion that the user can control the positioning, association and/or relationship to mastered content, and/or can readily and conveniently index, search, link, modify or otherwise use and manipulate annotations or other later-written content.
In general, it would be useful to provide an apparatus, system and method which can readily provide for accounting or payment of royalties for proprietary intellectual property and/or provide annotations, updates, supplements, corrections or other later-written, i.e., (not mastered) content in a fashion which is practical and economical. It would be advantageous to provide apparatus, systems and methods for playing or reproducing both prerecorded and later-written content or data, on such medium in a manner which is economical, lightweight, small and otherwise convenient. It would be particularly advantageous to provide an apparatus for use in connection with such medium which is sufficiently small and lightweight as to be practical for use in or with a personal electronic device (PED).
The present invention includes a recognition of the existence and nature of certain problems in previous approaches, including those described herein.
In one embodiment, an optical medium uses a single structure or format (such as identical materials, layers and the like) for both a region for holding mastered data, e.g., data which is written substantially all at once or in parallel, and for defining a writeable area, such as a user-writeable area. In one embodiment the mastered data or content is provided by an injection molding process. In one embodiment the data layer is a phase change layer including a phase change film. One suitable medium is described in Application Ser. No. 09/315,398, supra, incorporated herein by reference. In one embodiment the medium has a high data density of about 2.6 Gigabits per square inch of data surface. By providing a high data density of this type, the present invention can provide for both a relatively large amount of mastered content and a relatively large amount of writeable area, e.g., totaling about 0.25 Gigabytes or more on one side of an optical disk, while providing a small form factor, such as a disk with a diameter less than about 35 millimeters. In this way, it is possible, for example, to provide a disk which can include uncompressed text data equivalent to about 45 or more 1000-page books, plus a writeable area sufficient to accommodate about 5000 or more pages of annotations, comments, revisions, etc., on a disk having a diameter of about 35 millimeters. Preferably the writeable area, if desired, can be formed in a fashion such that information written therein is not normally re-writeable or erasable. Preferably the data, including later-written material is archival in nature having a expected data integrity life time of at least about 10 years or more.
In one embodiment a writeable region of a medium with mastered content is used in connection with paying, collecting or accounting for usage or royalties for proprietary intellectual property embodied in or associated with the content. According to one aspect, at least some of the mastered content is unavailable for display, playback or other reproduction or use until a user has entered a key or code (e.g. a code with which the user receives an exchange for a payment). For example, some or all of the mastered content may be encrypted and the key or code may form some or all of the information needed for decrypting the mastered content. Such code-enabled access to mastered content can be provided in conjunction with the writeable area of the medium in a number of fashions. In one embodiment, it is desired to provide for access to the mastered content which is limited or restricted in one or more of a variety of fashions, such as being limited to use on a particular playback device, limited to use by a particular user or person, limited to a certain number of playbacks, limited to a predetermined time period of playback, limited to using a particular geographic location or site, or combinations thereof and the like. For example, the system can be configured such that, in response to a user""s entry of an access code, the system will record, into the writeable area, information pertinent to the license (or other use rights) for the mastered data. For example, when use is to be limited to a particular playback device, the system can be configured such that a processor serial number, playback device serial number or other identifier of the playback device is recorded into the writeable area. Thereafter, before reproducing the mastered content, the system will verify that the identifier for the playback device matches an identifier recorded on the writeable area. In some embodiments, information providing playback rights for a second playback device may be recorded into the writeable area, usually in addition to or in place of the original playback device identifier, e.g. in response to entry of a second access code (such as provided in exchange for a second royalty or other payment).
In one embodiment, the (preferably write-once) writeable area can be used for storing later-written information such as annotations, highlighting, reordering, remixing, modifications, supplements, collections, additions, bookmarks, cross references, hypertext or hyperlinks and the like. Preferably, annotations and similar materials can be associated, by the user, with particular portions or content of the mastered data. For example, when the mastered data includes some or all portions of a text book or similar academic or teaching content, a student or other user may preferably insert notes or annotations e.g. taken during lectures, for later review which will preferably be displayed (or available) adjacent the content to which such notes or annotations refer or relate. In one embodiment, some or all of the annotations may be effectively blocked from viewing by a second user (such as another student who licenses the mastered content at a later time). Preferably the annotations or similar material can be indexed, searched, modified, linked, and the like. In one embodiment the medium, as distributed to users, includes executable programs, such as search engine programs (e.g. for use in searching mastered content or other items), database programs (e.g. for use in organizing or accessing mastered content or other items) and/or programs related to decryption (or other copy protection functions) or annotations (or similar later-written information). In this way, the media can be self-executing, and/or platform independent, in the sense that users can perform desired functions or operations without having to separately acquire and load software for performing such functions. Preferably, techniques are included in the disk data format to prevent binary copies.